HYBRID COURSE - This course focuses on the preparation of research designs, consideration of quantitative versus qualitative methods, problems of inference and causality, development of cases, and the uses of statistics. The primary objective is to develop students' research capabilities. Prerequisites: POLI 100 plus sophomore standing. For more information contact forestie@umbc.edu.

HYBRID COURSE - This course will combine film, movies, skits and scholarly articles to examine how American democracy is portrayed. This is not a film course. Rather it is a treatment of a genre and subject matter that young adults have increasingly turned to for political information (e.g., Daily Show with John Stewart). The recent death of George Carlin (who took his campaign for political satire and his campaign against censorship all the way to the Supreme Court) and the new retrospectives on political satire further illustrate the need for a critical examination of what constitutes "political information." Prerequisite: POLI 100 or permission of instructor. For more information contact tkingmea@umbc.edu.

Oil, terrorism and weapons of mass destruction--these are the reasons the United States went to war to remove Saddam Hussein from power. Now that Saddam is gone, how is Iraqi oil being used to reconstruct Iraq? What ties to terrorist groups did Saddam have and what groups are operating inside Iraq today? How long will the United States occupy Iraq? Finally, will Iraqis unleash a civil war between the U.S.-installed regime and those who are not part of the power structure? This course focuses on the history of Iraq from independence to Operation Iraqi Freedom to assess Iraq's progress since the second Gulf war. For more information contact mcroatti@umbc.edu.

HYBRID COURSE - This course will introduce the topic of international negotiation through a study of diplomacy, negotiation theory, and a practicum in which students will be the negotiators. Student diplomats will explore case studies -- Kyoto climate talks, Kashmir crisis between India and Pakistan, and North Korea nuclear negotiations. A simulated negotiation environment will allow them to try their hands at actual international diplomacy as well. This is a special topics course and students may repeat this course for credit as the topic varies. This is a first-time offering for International Negotiation. The course syllabus is available upon request. Prerequisite: POLI 100. For more information or if you have questions contact bstarkey@umbc.edu.